Simon Pegg Blames Sci-Fi And Superhero Movies For The 'Dumbing Down Of Cinema'

The ‘Shaun of the Dead’ and ‘Star’ Trek star thinks comic book and superhero movies distract adults from real world issues.

He may be a self confessed geek and the co-writer of the next Star Trek movie, but Simon Pegg has said he feels cinema is being ‘dumbed down’ by sci-fi and comic book movies. Speaking to the Radio Times, the actor said society had now become “infantilised” and therefore more challenging movies were no longer able to find sucess at the box office.

Pegg stars as Scotty in the recent Star Trek films.

“Before Star Wars, the films that were box-office hits were The Godfather, Taxi Driver, Bonnie and Clyde and The French Connection – gritty, amoral art movies,” he told the mag.“Then suddenly the onus switched over to spectacle and everything changed … I don’t know if that is a good thing.”

“I’m very much a self-confessed fan of science-fiction and genre cinema. But part of me looks at society as it is now and thinks we’ve been infantilised by our own taste. Now we’re essentially all consuming very childish things – comic books, superheroes. Adults are watching this stuff, and taking it seriously.”

“It is a kind of dumbing down, in a way, because it’s taking our focus away from real-world issues. Films used to be about challenging, emotional journeys or moral questions that might make you walk away and re-evaluate how you felt about … whatever,” he continued. “Now we’re walking out of the cinema really not thinking about anything, other than the fact that the Hulk just had a fight with a robot.”

The actor, who co-wrote and starred in the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and The World's End) also said he was ready to move on in his carrer and take on more dramatic roles.“Sometimes (I) feel like I miss grown-up things. And I honestly thought the other day that I’m gonna retire from geekdom,” he said.

“I’ve become the poster child for that generation, and it’s not necessarily something I particularly want to be. I’d quite like to go off and do some serious acting.” In his next film, Man Up, due out later this month, Pegg plays a 40-year-old divorcee who mistakes a single, 34-year-old woman for his much younger blind date. He will then star opposite Tom Cruise in summer blockbuster, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation which hits on July 31st.